Beet, pear and ginger juice

You can’t ‘beet’ this delicious, nutritious drink!

It’s been four weeks since I started juicing and I’m still as infatuated as ever. I’m particularly enjoying vegetable juices because they offer such an easy way to pack more nutrition into each day. Although I can’t get my family as excited about drinking vegetables as I am, I am loving these concoctions’ bright colours and fresh taste. I also love how healthy they make me feel!

When working with vegetables, I wasn’t sure whether I should use the finest or medium filter so I asked my juicing guru, Alexa Spas (aka Flexi Lexi) for her thoughts. “My clients and I definitely prefer smooth juice. I like to say that smooth juice tastes like liquid sunshine; you still know what you are drinking (spinach, kale, carrots, beets) and yet it tastes delicious to even the toughest of critics. It is actually easier for your body to assimilate and absorb immediately when there is no pulp. It also tastes even better when you drink your smooth juice through a glass straw!” As it turns out, the finer filter on my Omega VERT juicer is easier to clean…so smooth it is, for me.

Probably my favourite vegetable juice is a ruby-red beet blend (recipe below). I developed this recipe for several reasons, not the least of which is the fact that beets are packed with antioxidants and nutrients, including magnesium, sodium and vitamin C. They’re also sweet and delicious as well as being quite inexpensive. In general, the vegetable juice combos I make are significantly less expensive than the fruit blends, so I am incented to make them more often.

Alexa offered the following tips when juicing beets:

• Peel your beets before juicing as the skin tastes like dirt. The quickest way is to use a sharp knife and chop off both ends first so the beet won’t slide around.
• Wear gloves if you don’t want stained fingers.
• Make sure you have a big enough bowl or catcher for the pulp that will come out of the juicer. Beet pulp comes out fast and there’s a lot of it and you don’t want it all over your counter
• Make sure to clean your juicer afterwards before making your next juice so it doesn’t turn out purple.
• If you have a juicer that requires chopping your produce first, cut the beet into skinny slices no longer than 2 inches. This helps the beets go through the juicer quickly with less chance of a mess.

I discovered an extra trick on my own, which I now use every time I make juice. To make clean up easier, after you’ve removed the vessel containing your freshly prepared juice, put another bowl under the spout and run a cup of water through the juicer. This helps to rinse the machine quite thoroughly.

With all these tips in mind, I’m now making beet juice every other day, alternating with green juice (more on that in my next post).

You Can’t Beet This Juice

Ingredients

• 3 medium sized beets, washed, peeled and sliced
• 2 small pears, cored and cut into eighths
• 1 lemon, peeled and quartered
• 1” (2.5 cm) piece of gingerroot (or more to taste); washed and cut into small pieces
• handful fresh parsley, stems and all

Method

• Wash and chop all ingredients as needed.
• Put them through the juicer a few pieces at a time.
• Enjoy immediately or pour into a glass jar with a tight fitting lid and refrigerate for up to 72 hours.

Makes approximately 2 cups (500 mL, depending on size of vegetables and type of juicer).